Morgan v. Hennigan

Morgan v. Hennigan was the case that defined the school busing controversy in Boston, Massachusetts during the 1970s. On March 14, 1972, the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee on behalf of 14 black parents and 44 children.[1] Tallulah Morgan headed the list of plaintiffs, and James Hennigan, then chair of the School Committee, was listed as the main defendant.

The plaintiffs' legal team decided to pursue the case as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The School Committee was charged with violating the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments as well as the 1964 Civil Rights Act.[2] The plaintiffs claimed that the defendants, the School Committee, the Board of Education, and the Education Commissioner, "ha[d] intentionally brought about and maintained racial segregation in the Boston Public Schools."[3]

In short, while Boston was not experiencing "de jure" segregation (segregation as a result of the law), it was experiencing "de facto" segregation (segregation as a result of action). Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. was randomly assigned to the case.[4] He did not make a decision until June 21, 1974.

At that point he ruled that the city defendants had contributed to the "establishment of a dual school system," one for each race.[5] Garrity's solution to the problem of segregation in Boston would become an explosive issue in the city. The main tactics for reducing segregation were redistricting and busing.[6]

  1. ^ Jane M. Hornburger, "Deep are the Roots: Busing in Boston," Journal of Negro Education 45, no. 3 (Summber 1976):237.
  2. ^ Emmett H. Buell, School Desegregation and Defended Neighborhoods, p. 94.
  3. ^ Morgan v. Hennigan, 379 F. Supp. 410 (D.C. Mass., June 21, 1974)
  4. ^ Ronald P. Formisano, Boston Against Busing: Race, CLass, and Ethnicity in the 1960s and 1970s (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991):66.
  5. ^ George R. Metcalf, From Little Rock to Boston: The History of School Desegregation (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1983), 200.
  6. ^ Morgan v. Hennigan, 379 F. Supp. 410 (D.C. Mass., June 21, 1974)